Mylan's Acquisition Costs Outpace Growing Sales

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Mylan Inc. said today its profit fell 14 percent in the first quarter as acquisition and restructuring costs outpaced its growing sales.

Revenue from generic sales rose 8 percent to $1.24 billion, and specialty pharmacy revenue rose 21 percent to $101 million. Sales of generics in the Europe, Middle East and Africa rose 15 percent to $410.8 million, and in the Asia Pacific region, those sales climbed 31 percent to $282.3 million.

Mylan has increasingly become a global operator, buying a majority stake in Matrix Laboratories of India in early 2007. It moved into Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific by buying Merck KGaA's generics unit. In 2009 Mylan bought the rest of Matrix.

Yet generic revenue fell 5 percent in North America to $562.7 million and Mylan spent $12.1 million integrating recent acquisitions and restructuring its operations. That compares to a $4.4 million gain from special items a year ago.

Mylan said its profit slipped to $61.1 million, or 20 cents per share, from $71.3 million, or 23 cents per share. Revenue increased 7 percent, to $1.29 billion from $1.21 billion. Excluding one-time costs, Mylan said it earned 36 cents per share.

Analysts were expecting a profit of 34 cents per share and Mylan matched predictions for revenue, according to Thomson Reuters.

The company maintained its forecast of $1.50 to $1.70 per share in profit this year. Analysts expect $1.61 per share and $5.54 billion in revenue on average.